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Province urged to overhaul ‘flawed’ approach to funding education

One lunchroom supervisor monitoring 100 children. Students who need an educational assistant to learn, but don’t get one. Schools without teachers for music, drama and the arts.

These are some of the daily challenges facing children at school and getting parents fired up. Harder to grasp is the complex formula that determines how much money is spent on the many aspects of education in Ontario.

Students from Elkhorn Public School make their way back to class after afternoon recess. A new report says the province’s funding formula lies ‘at the heart’ of core problems in schools, from lack of special education resources to crumbling buildings. (Vince Talotta / Toronto Star)

Students from Elkhorn Public School get ready to return to class after afternoon recess. (Vince Talotta / Toronto Star)

But the public needs to pay attention to that complicated funding formula because it’s “at the heart of” serious inequities and shortfalls in the province’s schools, argues a new report.

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And that “flawed” and “one-size-fits-all” tool must be overhauled and replaced with a new plan based on student need, rather than a system that divvies up a pre-set and inadequate pool of money, says the paper released Monday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

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“Until we fix the way Ontario funds public education, chronic problems such as aging schools, portables, and avoidable school closures will keep rearing their ugly head,” says Erika Shaker, director of education and outreach for the think-tank.

Economist and report author Hugh Mackenzie says parents and students experience the impact of a broken funding model every day. He cites deteriorating buildings, overcrowded classrooms, children forced to travel for hours on school buses, and shortages of essentials like teacher librarians and breakfast programs.

His report notes the 20-year-old funding formula, introduced by cost-cutting former premier Mike Harris, centralized control of education decisions and dollars with the government and created a situation where school boards and educators wrestle over a fixed pot of insufficient funds.

Instead, he proposes a blueprint to turn that approach upside down, beginning with a new set of principles and objectives, and followed by funding based on students’ needs.

A key piece is a recommendation to link special education dollars directly to each student diagnosed or identified as needing supports through an assessment. This would replace the current “rationing of arbitrarily-limited resources,” says the report.

In the current cash-strapped system, many children are “entitled” to support under the special education act, “but they are not entitled to the financial resources required to deliver that support,” Mackenzie told the Star in an email.

Other recommendations include:

Targeting students most at risk based on demographics with more resources for special ed, second-language funding and other learning;

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Ensuring teachers and education workers on the frontlines are involved in revamping the system and how it’s funded;

An investment to eliminate the $16-billion repair backlog in Ontario schools for problems like aging roofs, windows and furnaces.

The Liberals have come under fire for failing to fix the funding formula despite pouring billions of dollars into the school system over the last 15 years. The province currently spends about $24 billion a year on education, or $12,100 per pupil, fifth among provinces in per-student spending. Last year, with most school boards investing more in special education than the province allocates, the government announced an extra $219 million for teachers and education workers.

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